Dinner

We had a visitor from Mexico City coming tonight to spend two nights with us. He's not vegetarian, so I thought I'd make something with seitan to let him try a food he likely hadn't had before. I made a waterless Brussels Sprouts dish. Here is what I did: Ingredients 1 cup onion cut into approx. 1/4" x 3/4" half moons (I used about half of a medium Vidalia onion) 1 clove garlic, finely (1/8") diced 2 cups (12 small-medium) Brussels Sprouts, halved 1 1/2 cups button or crimini mushrooms cut into quarters (I used 8 crimini) Kernels stripped from one cob of corn (maybe 3/4 cup?) 3 leaves bok choy, each leaf halved and then cut into 3/8" pieces 8 ounces seitan, slices or cubes 10 leaves fresh oregano, roughly chopped into approximately quarters 1/2 t salt 1/2 t freshly ground black pepper Process I put, in this order, the onion, garlic, Brussels Sprouts, mushrooms, corn, bok choy, and seitan into a large Saladmaster stock pan. I cooked waterlessly - i.e., I...

I couldn't believe that Weaver Street Market , a local coop, had so many great prices and items on sale a few days ago. They had, for example, jumbo artichokes for 99 cents apiece! I wonder how they could make money at this price! Even more exciting, they had this hybrid melon called a melonade . Folks at the coop said that it tastes like lemonade and offered my daughter and me samples - wow, they're right! I could only find two references to melonades online; one describes this as "sweet with bright notes of citrus, the Melonade Melon is a new variety melon. This crisp, juicy melon is one of the most refreshing we’ve ever tasted" and the other , apparently from May 2015, characterizes the melon as being of "Round shape, Tart-sweet, Tones of citrus". Surprisingly, its PLU code of 4325 searches in the International Federation of Produce Standards website as a "French Breakfast" melon. Anyway, we're loving this melon and quickly finished 1 1/2...

I wanted to make a bean main course and was about to put on some whole grain rice when my wife asked me to use white rice. I'm not a fan of white rice as whole grain rice not only is far healthier, but also tastes a lot better. However, my wife had bought some white rice and prepared it I think for somebody who wasn't used to whole grain rice, and had some leftover. Ingredients 1 1/2 cups Great Northern beans 3/4 cup (i.e., half as much as the Great Northern) black beans Water 1 t chopped (1/8" or so) ginger Vegan bouillon cube 1/2 cup onion cut into approx. 3/8" cubes 3/4 cup (packed) kale leaves (stems excepted), cut into strips approx. 1/2" wide 1/2 c bell pepper chopped into approx. 3/8" x 3/4" strips (optional) 2 t dried chives 1t garlic powder 1/2 t salt (or to taste) (I used about half salt and half kala namak , pink-colored "black salt") 3/4 t freshly ground black pepper 1t ground cumin 2t fresh lime or lemon juice Process I mixed the ...

Ingredients 1/2 cup onion, chopped into 3/8" cubes 1 clove garlic, finely (1/8") minced 15 ounce can of chickpeas, rinsed and drained [I much prefer to pressure cook chickpeas, but a week or two back, my wife picked up four chickpea cans for situations like today where I had little time to put dinner together and welcomed "done" beans] 3 cups Napa cabbage cut into approx. 1 1/2" x 1/4" strips (about 1/4 of a head of cabbage) 1 1/4 cup frozen corn kernels 1/4 t ground cumin 1/8 t turmeric Half dozen cloves Juice of quarter lime (or small lemon) 1/2 t salt (or to taste) Process I put, in this order, the onion, garlic, chickpea, cabbage, and corn into a large Saladmaster stock pan. I cooked semi-waterlessly. Because everything was cooked except the frozen corn and cabbage, I didn't have to do true waterless cooking, but I first gently stirred all the ingredients and heated it on medium high, stirring, for a minute or so, then I reduced the heat to low, c...

We've been growing oyster mushrooms at home. It's fun when they suddenly start sprouting - they sprout quickly and grow quite large over 2-3 days. I've loved recently using Chorizo Seitan by Uptons Naturals . It is not spicy hot enough to bother my daughter, though she doesn't enjoy this seitan as much as my wife and I do. I made a simple saute of the mushrooms with the seitan. Yum!

A particularly nice cousin of my wife's is visiting for a few days and arrived this morning. I was even more excited than usual about cooking! I thought that I'd make a waterless seitan and vegetable dish. I made some corn off the cob and quinoa; I normally have a salad, so wondered what the main course might be like with fresh tomato. Here is what I did. Ingredients 1/3 cup onion cut into 3/8" cubes 1 clove garlic, finely (app. 1/8") chopped 2 cups (most of a 12 ounce bag) frozen artichoke heart quarters (canned artichoke hearts could be used; if so, they should be drained and rinsed and added at the end of the cooking, mixed in, and allowed to sit for 2 or more minutes) 1 1/2 cups mixed mushroom cut into 1/2" thick slices (I used frozen pieces which were cut a bit finer) 1/2 cup, compressed, kale leaves, hand torn (stems excepted) into approximately 1" squares (I used freshly picked kale from our garden; the stems were tender, so I didn't remove the st...

(I made this dish on Friday night, June 2nd, but it turned out that my wife had to leave for a meeting before I served. Instead, I made a simple pizza dish with a whole wheat crust and a sauce with marinara, tomato paste, onion, garlic, broccoli, artichoke heart, and a little vegan Field Roast brand sausage for my daughter and me. I put a little Daiya brand vegan cheese on her half. She helped to make a massaged kale salad. I waterlessly cooked some frozen black-eyed peas with turmeric, a little onion, and salt. Dinner was good! I'll post just the picture and results of the meal tomorrow.) Ingredients 1 1/2 cups dry navy beans rinsed, soaked for at least 5-8 hours, and then rinsed again Just enough water to cover beans Medium tomato, unripe and still green, cut into 3/8" cubes Vegan bouillon cube (we're out so I skipped) Turnip, peeled and cut into 3/8" cubes 5 leaves kale, stems excepted, and hand torn into approximately 1/2" squares 3 garlic scapes cut into 1/4...